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B2B E-Catalogue & Sales App
eBook:
How to Digitalize Your B2B Sales Processes
This e-book has been created for sales managers
and directors who want to know how to digitalize
the sales process to cut costs, maximise sales
revenue and increase rep efficiency.
Hark Solutions have over 10 years of experience
working with sales teams like yours to support
the delivery of a more efficient and profitable
sales process by adopting a digital solution.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Why digitalize your sales processes?
From our experience of working with brands, one of the key drivers for
digitalizing sales processes is the frustration and wastage caused by print
catalogues. Print catalogues are outdated instantly and cannot be updated
easily or cheaply. As a result, many businesses are now adopting digital
solutions like e-catalogues and sales apps to reduce their print costs and
the environmental impact of wasted printed materials.
Another trigger is sales rep efficiency. For reps, finding product information
quickly is difficult, especially with ever growing ranges and deletions or
stock-outs still in printed catalogues. Using an e-catalogue and sales app
gives reps access to the entire product range and the confidence that
finding a product is only a click away. The benefit is that time with the
customer is only spent doing the most important thing, selling!
It’s not just while reps are with a customer that digital solutions are
creating positive outcomes. Reps spend 59% of their time doing tasks
other than selling, so by looking at the whole sales process, areas can be
found where productivity can be improved. For example, order writing is
commonly identified as being an inefficient process. By introducing an app
that enables reps to write and submit orders electronically you can save
time, reduce errors and support a smoother order fulfilment process.
With the B2B sales landscape changing so quickly, it’s vital that businesses
keep up with the demands of retailers and digitalize their processes to
maximise efficiency and stay ahead of competitors.
A B2B e-catalogue and sales app like aWorkbook combines a digital product catalogue with presentation features and an order writing interface.
The benefits of a B2B e-catalogue and sales app are clear:
• Reduced reliance on printed material leads to cost savings on production and shipping of catalogues
• Reps always have access to accurate and up to date product and stock information for ordering as the season progresses
• Greater segmentation of the product range for different markets and customer types maximises sales opportunities
• Tailored product presentations make meetings more efficient and generate more valuable conversations with buyers
• Custom built assortments support increased sales as brands increasingly sell by collection rather than product type
• Reps no longer need to rely on samples, enabling them to go-to-market before competitors and increase efficiency
• Orders are submitted quickly and accurately supporting a smoother order fulfilment process
When is the right time?
Off the shelf solutions like aWorkbook make the implementation
of a digital sales process easier than ever before. Because
of this, many brands are supporting their sales teams by
adopting a B2B e-catalogue and sales app now as it makes
sense for their business, helps them to reduce costs and
stops them falling behind their competitors.
The triggers for digitalizing the sales process are various and
can be defined by functional or organisational goals.
Typical Organisational goals:
• Delivering a digital vision or project• Initiative to reduce costs• Focus on achieving environmental goals• Deliver greater customer value across all touchpoints
Typical Functional goals:
• Implement a new approach to support your sales force• The need to communicate a new go-to-market strategy• Open new routes to market• Expand wholesale channels• Develop competitive advantage over others in the market
It’s essential to have all the key stakeholders in the business
agreed on the decision. Making the case for a B2B e-catalogue
and sales app and picking the right solution requires research
into what apps are available in the market and identifying
clearly what your business needs and priorities are.
For sales, this is usually the need for accurate information
and wanting to do more in less time. However, each job
function will have their own idea of what’s important.
• Marketing need the brand stories to be told successfully and consistently
• IT look for ways to ensure the solution integrates with existing systems
• Product Managers aim for ranges that work commercially
• Management like solutions that support growth and business advancement
• Customer service want accuracy and easy access to information
As a Sales Manager, it’s important you get buy-in from
your sales team and communicate the benefits of a
B2B e-catalogue and sales app. A solution can only be
successfully deployed if everyone is on-board.
Getting agreement - who leads the project?
Marketing need to know that the assets can be gathered
together within the timeframe; IT need to be comfortable about
any potential impact on their systems and the workload to
help deliver it and for Product Managers the focus is on timely
delivery of key product attributes. Management must be willing
to look ahead and be committed to making the investment.
Who leads is up to you (very often it’s marketing) but nobody
will welcome the commitment to deliver it unless there’s a
very clear benefit. So, it’s important to ensure a successful
implementation and to know what that looks like.
Who leads is up to you (very often it’s marketing) but nobody will welcome the commitment to deliver it unless there’s a very clear benefit.
Which solution?
Consulting widely with different job functions, amongst partners and even
competitors will tell you a lot about what is right for you. Off the shelf
apps come in many different varieties and often with overlapping features.
Some are better by design and are built on modern cloud platforms.
Implementation can vary from fast and simple to complex and slow.
It will help reduce the field of options if you know what’s important to you,
then you can judge each shortlisted app on its merits:
• Who will use it? Only your reps or will it be shared with dealers?
• Do you need access offline when there’s no internet connection?
• What plans have you for printed brochures?
• What devices do you want to support? Computer/tablet, Windows/iOS/Android?
• Do you want to capture orders and show a live stock position?
• Is customer order history and sales order processing important to you?
• How and when should it integrate with existing systems, such as ERP, DAM, PIM or PLM
• What kind of service relationship you want with the vendor – high or low touch?
Recognising your trigger for action and identifying key factors that
support the business need will ensure the vendor selection process is
focused on the best possible outcome.
Next steps: What do you want? Write it down.
A written brief or request for proposal (RFP) document will help you
define and agree internally what you want. It makes it easier for vendors
to know (and for you to see) if they can meet your needs. Invest the time
in the process and don’t rush it. We recommend a brief or RFP includes
the following:
• A statement of the business need• Your current sales process – both sell-in and sell-through• Your target user base for the app• Reasons for adopting a B2B e-catalogue and sales app • Expected outcomes of the project• Expected features of the app• Use case examples• Potential integration required with other systems• Other requirements – online/offline, devices to be used, support• Project scope and timeline• Next steps for vendors
To help you get started, we’ve created a ‘Needs checklist’ which you can
download from the ‘Learning Hub’ on our website.
Summary and key points
With the B2B sales landscape changing so quickly, it’s vital
that businesses keep up with the demands of retailers and
digitalize their processes to maximise efficiency and stay
ahead of competitors. Some of the important points to
consider are:
• Why digitalize your sales processes?
• What is a B2B e-catalogue and sales app and why introduce one?
• When is the right time to introduce a B2B e-catalogue and sales app?
• Getting buy-in – who leads the project?
• Defining needs to support the vendor selection process
At each stage of the process it’s important to keep in mind the
needs of the sales team as well as the other functions a B2B
e-catalogue and sales app could support, such as marketing.
The earlier in the process you can get buy-in from other
departments, the quicker the app can be rolled out to your sales
team and the smoother the implementation.
Hark Solutions Ltd
T: +44 (0)1460 279744
www.aworkbook.com
aWorkbook, trusted every season by:
Ready to select vendors?
The team at Hark has been working with businesses for over 10
years helping them to develop their digital strategy by adding a B2B
e-catalogue and sales app to their wholesale channel.
We offer a no obligation online demonstration of the aWorkbook app to
give you an insight into how it can be used in your business. We’ll also
discuss which of your existing processes it can be used to support. It’s
quick and easy to arrange – just email [email protected] or call us
on +44 1460 279744 to arrange a time.
